Victor Von Hulk part II
by Kafka
Summary: A what if story where Doom obtains the power of the Hulk, not Banner.


Victor Von Hulk pt II of III  
  
A what if story about everybody's favourite manic psychotic, Doc Doom. The story won't fit properly into Fan Four continuity but what do you care. Written for anyone who has ever admired Doom. Note, contains melodramatic pointless violence. I had to add an extra part, I couldn't fit the whole thing into two parts. Please review.  
  
The Thing had died at the hands of Victor Von Doom. The Fantastic Four's remaining members left in disarray. At the funeral Johnny, Sue and Reed contemplate their role in the downfall of one of the greatest men they had ever met. Both Johnny and Sue sat in a deplorable state, wallowing in grief and guilt. Though it was Reed who suffered the most. Reed, super-genius, detached, introverted, phlegmatic... Poor Reed who hadn't even managed to forgive himself for deforming Ben in the first place now trying to rationalise his death. Even after all that had happened between Doom and Reed, Reed never thought his nemesis would go this far. There had always been a line that both sides would never cross, until now.  
  
The death of Benjamin Grimm captured the heart of the general community and struck a hard blow to the metahuman community. Heroes who had not to long ago gathered for the joyous occasion of Sue and Reed's marriage now brought together to farewell Ben. The outlash towards Doom was swift but unsuccessful. The dictator of Latevria was not to be found anywhere despite the efforts of a search team led by the Avengers. The media was there on que to ask horribly insensitive questions as to whether the FF would find a replacement for Ben.  
  
After the funeral, life at the Baxter Building fell into a dark morbidity. Johnny fell into a silent depression, no longer the energetic wild child of the past. With Reed talking to her even less than usual, Sue found herself with to much on her mind and no one to share the load with. Reed threw himself at the task of tracking Doom down like never before. Doctor Bruce Banner assisting in the task, poured over the video surveillance tapes of Ben's death with Reed for the umpteenth time. The pair had figured out how and what it was that was the source of Doom's metamorphosis. Now came the hard part of figuring how to stop him.  
  
With only limited available research made in Gamma radiation and random deductions as to go on. From the fact that he couldn't be found, Reed guessed a few things: that Doom was going to play this game his own way, with his new found strength it's probable he'll go for a head on attack, if Doom was to strike at the Baxter building it would probably be soon because of the disarray of the group and the slight weakness caused by the repairs still being carried out on the building from the last fight. Reed hoped that he and Bruce could find a way to counter the effects of the Gamma bomb on Doom. For Doom's attacks had always been abstract and varying, leaving little way to form a plan against them.  
  
*****  
  
As usual, Reed's surmises were quite well founded. It was four days since he had broken the Thing's neck and now Doom set in motion his plan that would hopefully take the life of another close to Reed. And what a show it would be. The first of several Doom bots started to walk casually to the entrance of the Baxter building. Upon seeing it, several security guards at the lobby raised their guns at it and fired several rounds into it's torso. The first few bullets entered into the Doom look alike doing nothing, but a second round of bullets triggered a large explosive hidden inside it. Some of the guards were knocked down, some killed.  
  
The Baxter Building, designed by Reed, was built with every conceivable security precaution. Although the building shook roughly, the damage was minimal. Of course, Doom had prepared well. Along with explosives, the Doom bot had stored inside it's circuitry an EMP bomb. This EMP bomb would let out a pulse that would take out all electronically powered devices in a roughly 300 metre range. Similar devices have been around for quite a while, but Doom had constructed this miniature, short range version for his purposes. Though Reed, not being a man to overlook such possibilities has many fail-safes wired to the power flow for the building in place.  
  
*****  
  
On the thirty-third floor, Reed noted the shake building quiver followed by a very brief loss of power before the back up sources kicked. Reed wasting no time, he contacted Johnny and Sue over their com-links, telling them to meet him immediately at the security floor. Gathering Bruce Banner up in an elongated hand, Reed stretched his way down the few floors to converge with the others. Johnny had arrived already and Sue wasn't far behind. A quick check of the security systems gave an a rough outline of what had happened. The group had already guessed who their assailant was. Reed was about to issue a set of orders when alarm bells revealed a more immediate problem. Two more Doom-bots slowly ambled towards the Baxter building from down the street. Reed called back Johnny before he could take of after them.  
  
'Johnny no! Doom will have those robots wired with explosives too, if you attack them in the street they'll take out to many people.' Reed yelled as Johnny turned back gritting his teeth.  
  
'We have to do something!' Johnny urged.  
  
'I'm certain the building will be able to hold up to Victor's attack' Reed started muttering very quickly, partly to himself. 'The main problems are, the damage those bombs cause will be putting way to many people in danger, the building won't hold indefinitely, Doom's probably got some bigger plan behind this...'  
  
Reed's voice trailed of as on the screens the two Doom-bots were entering the building. The assembled group stood devastated as the computers started indicating the approach of three more Doom-bots from a different direction. Below two more Doom-bots detonated testing the buildings stability. Reed stood in agony, his brain coming up with and rejecting several defence possibilities. What was really gnawing at Reed was that he knew the group would have to split up to have any chance to control this. This would be playing into Doom's hands, but Reed couldn't see any other choices.  
  
With an inhuman effort, Reed managed to order Johnny to evacuate the building, Sue to get to the ground and to use her force fields to contain the area of damage the bombs would be causing. Reed himself planned to go to the ground also to help anyone who had been hurt already and to hopefully find a way of stopping this onslaught. The group split up to their separate tasks, overwhelmed at their inability to face their hidden foe.  
  
Both Reed and Sue were unprepared for the scene that waited for them at the ground. Only certain parts of the building had succumbed to the blasts, it was the surrounding area that had shocked them. Chaos reigned as dozens of people were fleeing in every direction. Injured and dead people were scattered sporadically in the vicinity. More Doom-bots in groups of two or three were approaching within about one minute intervals, from random directions. Sue contained a few of the Doom-bots, but the force of the explosions strained her force fields meaning that a few of the robots still managed to hit their target.  
  
Whilst clearing anyone still stuck in the area, Reed continued to seek the best way to counter Doom's attack. Trying to work out the reason for Doom's every move, Reed came to a horrible realisation. Doom had already got inside the building!  
  
*****  
  
Doom had walked in with one of the groups of Doom-bots. It was a rather simple move, but one he hoped that would slip through Reed's over-analytical mind for a while. He had just strolled into the mangled entrance of the Fantastic Four's headquarters. Doom had transformed into the hulk of a form the gamma radiation had given him while the Doom-bots exploded. It took him quite a while to get through some of the elaborate security systems that Reed had concocted. Thanks to the explosions, the EMP blast and his incredible strength, the task wasn't that hard.  
  
Doom had snuck inside because he knew that Reed would never be callous enough to abandon those trapped in the building. He also deducted that it would probably be either Sue or Johnny playing the heroics inside for Reed would more likely be trying to grasp the situation from the ground. Doom hoped it would be young Johnny Storm whom he would come across. Either Sue or Reed's powers would be quite a challenge to overcome if he could even do so at all. Especially with time so limited. Other heroes would probably be gathering to help very shortly and it wouldn't take Reed long to figure out what was going on.  
  
After a few floors Doom came across what he was after. A group of twenty or so workers were huddled together in fear, in an office. It wouldn't take long for someone to turn up to rescue them. Doom towered over them waiting for their would-be hero to turn up.  
  
*****  
  
Johnny Storm had evacuated all the higher levels of the building at an awesome speed. More than anything, Johnny wanted to get the building clear and join the fray on the ground. He still hadn't got over the guilt over leaving Ben to die at Doom's hands, he wouldn't let the same happen to Reed and Sue. Johnny hoped that Reed had found some way to stop Doom, but the explosions still rocking building at random intervals suggested not. Johnny helped another couple of pockets of people to safety using a specially designed net that his flames wouldn't burn. It was in an office floor a story down that he came across Doom.  
  
To the group of office workers on the ground, the scene was terrifying. They watched one green muscle bound giant, one man engulfed in flame, stare at each other in rapt hatred. Johnny Storm sprung forwards first, fixing his fiery hands around Doom's neck. Doom head butted Johnny in an attempt to keep the surging flames from consuming his neck. Johnny staggered back a bit and Doom pounced after him. Johnny soared back into an adjacent office letting a powerful wave of flames loose at Doom. In his anger Johnny let his powers rage unchecked, large quantities of intense flame radiated from his body devouring anything in it's way.  
  
The force of the fire left Doom in awe. Even in this powerful form, the flames ate through the flesh on his shoulders and chest to bone level. Doom's healing factor was having a hard time regenerating his body as he struggled to move forwards against the wall of flame stopping him. Unwilling to succumb, Doom leapt with everything he had left at the out of control Human Torch. Doom grabbed Johnny in a tight lock, trying to squeeze the life out of him. Stuck in Doom's embrace, Johnny increased the intensity with every ounce of energy. The two clung together, Doom's flesh and blood trickled down in a runny mess forming dark pools on the floor.  
  
It took thirty four seconds for Johnny to pass out. It took two minute, eighteen seconds for Doom's body to heal itself enough so he could manage to stand up again. Where Doom had held tight to Johnny was burned away. Organs, bones, flesh and blood had been stripped off leaving a large cavity where his chest should have been. In utter agony, Doom lay as his body knitted together muscle, tissue, litres of lost blood, skin... When the green giant had enough composure, he rose to his unsteady feet. Doom looked down at young Johnny Storm, struggling to breath on the ground. Lifting one of his large green feet then slamming it down on Storm's chest, Doom killed the boy.  
  
Staggering, Doom dragged himself past the terrified workers, who still sat in a corner. Fire was beginning to spread rapidly, enclosing them in. More frightening though was the monster hunched over, still dripping blood. After a while, he began to move over to the windows at the edge of the building. Doom leant down and pushed of his powerful legs smashing through the window. Doom sailed through the air before smashing through the windows of a building opposite the Baxter building.  
  
Doom landed unevenly, his weight driving him right through the floor to a lower level. The fall disorientated Doom, but he managed to pull himself up and run away from the confused people who had gathered around him. In the confusion on the ground, Doom managed to slip away. By this time a mass of heroes littered the streets. The Doom-bots continued to turn up for another fifteen minutes, though between the assembled heroes they didn't prove much of a problem. Reed scoured the building looking for Johnny, only to find his fears true. After helping the remaining people to escape from the building, Reed had to give Sue the heart breaking news that her brother is dead.  
  
To Be Continued... 


End file.
